This week: how did the Hojo go from the zenith of their power to utter destruction in a single generation? The answer: a difficult neighborhood, dangerous neighbors, and bad decisions.
Sources
Conlan, Thomas. Arms and Equipment of the Samurai Warrior, 1200-1800.
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto.
Souyri, Pierre. The World Turned Upside Down
Birt, Michael J. “Samurai in Passage: The Transformation of the Sixteenth-Century Kanto.” Journal of Japanese Studies 11, No 2 (Summer, 1985), 369-399.
Images
Tateyama castle, home base of the Satomi clan, which despite being badly outgunned would never fall to the Hojo.Hideyoshi orders the attack on Odawara, from the late Edo/early Meiji Era, by Utagawa Toyonobu. Where the main narrative of Japanese history mentions the latter Hojo, it tends to emphasize the moment of their destruction as the completion of Hideyoshi’s ambition to reunify Japan. There are, however, plenty of other valid reasons to study them!A map of the forces arrayed against the Hojo during the 1590 siege. Useful for seeing just how impressive the forces Hideyoshi had arrayed (the blue markers) were.The graves of the latter Hojo leadership remain popular tourist destinations. This particular one is Ujimasa’s.
1 thought on “Episode 285 – Rags to Riches, Part 3”
I recently started your podcast and have been working my way thru them. I just listened to this.
31:15 “The Hōjō clan was annihilated. Its senior leadership were all ordered to commit suicide. The remainder of the clan were scattered. … The Latter Hōjō were no more. Ieyasu did intervene one last time, but just to save his daughter.”
I went to the web to see what more I could learn … and while I only found small chunks of information (with one exception), there are places that say how the Hōjō continued through the Tokugawa era.
Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_clan , saying that Ieyasu got Ujinao (his son in law) spared on condition of exile to a temple — I’d call the last major daimyo part of the “senior clan leadership”.
And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Domain . “Hōjō Ujinori a younger brother of Ujimasa developed a deep friendship with Tokugawa Ieyasu when they were both hostages to the Imagawa family. After the disbanding of the Hojo Domain, Ujinori obtained a 10,000 koku stipend from Ieyasu. He bequeathed 4,000 koku to his son Hōjō Ujimori and Ujimori was adopted by Ujinao to symbolically continue the family line of the Later Hojo family.” Which I don’t understand fully: if this is right, Ujimori was the uncle of Ujinao, so Ujimori would have been Ujinao’s first cousin, which is not so distant a relationship that I would call it “symbolic”. (My 63 first cousins I would call fairly close family. — Mom had 10? siblings, and I think this count includes once removeds.) And if true, it happened because of fellow-hostaging that you said Ieyasu paid no attention to.
https://jref.com/articles/the-late-hojo.377/ is the one thorough thing I found, but it’s not The Web of a Billion Lies for nothing. That says they got 4,000 koku from Ieyasu, but I saw elsewhere 10,000 koku, which would have made them borderline daimyo. And maybe they might have qualified as fudai? They’re listed down to a “guard of Osaka Castle” and a chamberlain of Meiji.
So … I don’t want to ask much effort of you, but I’m curious if you can clarify this easily.
You ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SEE http://www.city.odawara.kanagawa.jp.e.aez.hp.transer.com/kanko/hojo/ki-20150144.html , with what I think would be called the yuru-chara Chibi Hōjō. You could not possibly ask kawaii Ujinao Hojo “(fertility, maggot)” to commit seppuku. (Is he holding a book backwards?)
I recently started your podcast and have been working my way thru them. I just listened to this.
31:15 “The Hōjō clan was annihilated. Its senior leadership were all ordered to commit suicide. The remainder of the clan were scattered. … The Latter Hōjō were no more. Ieyasu did intervene one last time, but just to save his daughter.”
I went to the web to see what more I could learn … and while I only found small chunks of information (with one exception), there are places that say how the Hōjō continued through the Tokugawa era.
Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_H%C5%8Dj%C5%8D_clan , saying that Ieyasu got Ujinao (his son in law) spared on condition of exile to a temple — I’d call the last major daimyo part of the “senior clan leadership”.
And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Domain . “Hōjō Ujinori a younger brother of Ujimasa developed a deep friendship with Tokugawa Ieyasu when they were both hostages to the Imagawa family. After the disbanding of the Hojo Domain, Ujinori obtained a 10,000 koku stipend from Ieyasu. He bequeathed 4,000 koku to his son Hōjō Ujimori and Ujimori was adopted by Ujinao to symbolically continue the family line of the Later Hojo family.” Which I don’t understand fully: if this is right, Ujimori was the uncle of Ujinao, so Ujimori would have been Ujinao’s first cousin, which is not so distant a relationship that I would call it “symbolic”. (My 63 first cousins I would call fairly close family. — Mom had 10? siblings, and I think this count includes once removeds.) And if true, it happened because of fellow-hostaging that you said Ieyasu paid no attention to.
https://jref.com/articles/the-late-hojo.377/ is the one thorough thing I found, but it’s not The Web of a Billion Lies for nothing. That says they got 4,000 koku from Ieyasu, but I saw elsewhere 10,000 koku, which would have made them borderline daimyo. And maybe they might have qualified as fudai? They’re listed down to a “guard of Osaka Castle” and a chamberlain of Meiji.
So … I don’t want to ask much effort of you, but I’m curious if you can clarify this easily.